Similarly, when the joke was posed on rec.sport.pro-wrestling it was adapted to another American community in crisis. It began with this unique adaptation of the Australian text:

[AP] Pueblo, Colorado.
Latest news reports advise that a cell of 4 terrorists have been employed for the last year (since returning to the facility from a prolonged work stoppage, that must now be investigated as possibly having terrorist connections) as union steelworkers in a eastern Pueblo's Steel Plant. Police advised earlier today that 3 of the 4 have been detained... [etc.]

October 12, 2001 15:28:25 PST

This addition alludes to a long-standing dispute between the United Steelworkers of America and the management of the Rocky Mountain Steel Mills of Pueblo, Colorado. On October 3, 1997, the workers had called a strike, and the company immediately hired some 600 non-union employees to replace them, an illegal move. During the 3-month strike that followed, violent clashes frequently took place between the picketing union strikers and the "scab" employees who crossed their lines. When the strike was called off, the union filed a complaint asking the National Labor Relations Board to order the displaced workers reinstated and given full back pay. At the time of this joke, the suit was still pending, so the steelworkers had, in fact, not "been working" for some time but, to many observers' disgust, were nonetheless hoping to receive full pay for their idleness. The joke variant shows a clear anti-union slant, in fact calling for an investigation their picket line activities as being a form of terrorism.

However, as the joke spread, it began to lose this anti-ethnic edge. The first American version began:

From Boeing security:
Latest news reports advise that a cell of 4 terrorists have been operating at the Boeing Renton site.
Police advised earlier today that 3 of the 4 have been detained.
Boeing security stated that suspected terrorists Bin Sleepin, Bin Drinkin, and Bin Loafin have been arrested on immigration issues.
The police advise further . . . [etc.]

misc.survivalism Oct. 11, 2001 21:02:21 PST

This too referred to labor problems, in this case Boeing's announced plans to lay off 30,000 of its employees, beginning at the start of October, an event that caused widespread concern at its main commercial manufacturing plant at Renton. One notes, particularly, that "Bin Fightin," one of the usual suspects in most variants of the joke, has been replaced with "Bin Loafin," which softens the negative image of the alleged "terrorists." Hence the joke implicitly referred to employees who had received their pink slips, and so would have no alternative but to change from Bin Workin to Bin Sleepin, Bin Loafin, etc. And as we see the item appearing in joke-swapping sessions on message boards, we see that those who adapted it and responded to it were not necessarily in league with white nationalist groups, even in the joke's homeplace of Australia. When it was posted on aus.sport.rugby-league, details had already been altered to make members of the message board the potential terrorists, not the Others:

Ocker⁵⁹ police have confirmed a group of 4 terrorists have been located in New South Wales. . . . The terrorists, masquerading as Australian rugby league professionals -- Bin Sleepin, Bin Drinkin and Bin Fightin -- have been arrested on keeping the peace issues....

October 10, 2001 02:45:16 PST

And the response that this joke, even on an Aussie-based message board, showed that the "Ocker" (i.e., extreme nationalist) factions, not demonized ethnic Others, were the butt of the humor in this version, and that the sleepin', drinkin' and fightin' ruggers were implicitly the heroes.

1M. In other news a group of One Nation members have broken into the Lost Dogs Home and killed all the Afghans.

October 10, 2001 03:36:25 PST

2M. I also hear they took over the Sydney Hilton & executed the Bed linen.

October 11, 2001 00:17:42 PST

As a final development in the joke's progress, as its initial popularity was beginning to wind down, a further recomposition of it made the identification of the "terrorists" and the readers of the joke even more explicit. Evidently done by a British humorist (as "Safety Council" is a term more familiar in the UK than in the US) the warning now targets "our office" as the place where bin Sleepin and his associates are at large:

From Safety Council.
We've been notified by Building Security that there have been 4 suspected terrorists working at our office. Three of the four have been apprehended. Bin Sleepin, Bin Loafin, and Bin Drinkin have been taken into custody. Security advised us that they could find noone fitting the description of the fourth cell member, Bin Workin, in the office. Police are confident that anyone who looks like he's Bin Workin will be very easy to spot.

alt.support.depression.manic: October 20, 2001 00:58:36 PST

This in turn became the dominant ecotype, replacing the "Palm Island" version within days. It too was easily adapted to local office concerns, as seen in this version that appeared (like "Alligators in the Potty") on alt.wisdom:

We've been notified by Building Security that there have been 11 suspected terrorists working at our office. Ten of the eleven have been apprehended. Bin Sleepin, Bin Loafin, Bin Chattin, Bin Gossipin, Bin Leanin, Bin Surfin, Bin Gripin, Bin Smokin, Bin Eatin, and Bin Drinkin have been taken into custody. Security advised us that they could find no one fitting the description of the eleventh cell member, Bin Workin, in the office. Security Guards are confident that anyone who looks like Bin Workin will be very easy to spot.

AJ

October 23, 2001 17:38:25 PST⁶⁰

Like "Alligators in the Potty," this too produced a roar of virtual laughter, expressed in a variety of traditional ways.

1F. ROFL [rolling on the floor laughing] AJ! Joanne

October 23, 2001 18:03:06 PST

2M. AJ, Now that is funny!!! LOL! Cy :)

October 23, 2001 21:43:07 PST

3F. AJ, ya scared me! :)

October 23, 2001 18:04:12 PST

4. LOL Sounds like where I work. PJ

October 23, 2001 19:38:40 PST

5F. Crap I'm busted! Tori

October 23, 2001 20:39:24 PST

6F. ROFL !!!

October 24, 2001 05:31:35 PST

7F. LOL :) ~Teresa :)

October 24, 2001 07:14:20 PST

8. That's a good one!

October 24, 2001 09:52:22 PST

Most interesting is "Tori's" comment, "Crap I'm busted," which implies that he is willing to admit that he is one of the alleged terrorists rather than the elusive "bin Workin." In this form the joke now seems to have entered a new realm of officelore, the original allusions to lazy, crime-prone Aboriginals now fully domesticated into the traditional stereotypes of the workplace.

This development paralleled (and in part reinforced) other items in the Second American Wave of jokes, which marked most Americans' willingness to reach closure to their shock over the attacks and return to "business as usual." None did so more clearly than the item I'll label "Knitting an Afghan." Like other WTC jokes, it seems to have circulated quietly as a quasi-improvised quip several weeks before it circulated widely. On the very active American message board alt.current-events.wtc-explosion, for instance, one participant complained about the way in which airport security officials were scrupulously frisking passengers, looking for anything that could be construed as a weapon. "I talked to my mother today who has a friend going overseas," he continued, "who is trying to find knitting needles to use on the plane that won't be considered a weapon. What a strange thing for an old lady to have to worry about!" (September 27, 2001 21:22:39 PST ) . "They are probably afraid she will knit an Afghan," a respondent commented, provoking a series of appreciative and supportive remarks (September 28, 2001 09:20:06 PST).

This pun, like the one in "Killing the Afghans," implicitly defines the response to terrorism as more of a problem than the risk of hijacking itself. And like other jokes it seems to have spread quietly and orally, coming up periodically in virtual conversations complaining about airlines security measures. A week later, during a similar thread on triangle.general, one person remarked, "I wonder how my wife's going to be able to knit on the plane now. My current thought is wondering how much trouble we would have been in had a security guard tried to confiscate my wife's knitting needles. (her knitting bag probably holds 10 to 20 pairs (not including circular and double pointed)" (October 05, 2001 13:40:38 GMT). As before, the first reply featured the pun: "There is a clear and present danger that she would knit an afghan while on the plane" (October 08, 2001 08:37:31 PST). And it did not take long before people began creating their own reasons for introducing the pun into conversations, thus turning this conversational quip into a self-contained joke. The first context in which I saw this happen was, appropriately enough, the list rec.crafts.textiles.needlework:

A friend mentioned to me today that she'd heard from someone who'd had her knitting needles confiscated before boarding an airplane. Apparently officials were afraid she'd knit an Afghan. :))

October 11, 2001 10:46:34 PST

As with other Second Wave jokes, this inspired a series of virtual LOL's and other signs of praise, including the following unique quip:

Perhaps needling a taliban would be better??? Hm... would that a new style of needle lace -- with a lot of holes and vacant spaces??? Oh dear, I just couldn't resist (gasp! groan!)! :/ [wry "smiley"].

October 12, 2001 19:29:41 PST

Even with its self-critical and apologetic coda, this quip demonstrates the extent to which Americans now felt at liberty to comment on the catastrophic aftermath of the terrorist attacks. A joke that surely would have drawn angry and obscene responses a month before now was accepted as a normal part of the banter over this joke.

This form of "Knitting the Afghan" circulated modestly on private e-mail, but the most successful ecotype of this joke appeared a few days later in the form of an alleged news release:

This just in (from my sister-in-law):
CHICAGO - The war on terrorism took a strange and sad turn Friday as airline officials at Ohare International Airport refused to let a 73 year old grandmother board her plane as she had in her possesion two, six inch knitting needles. Apparently authorities were worried that she may knit an Afghan.

alt.shoe.lesbians.moderated: October 14, 2001 18:33:22 PST

From this point on, the joke in this form appeared regularly on message boards, and like "Bin Workin" it displayed not so much a brief cycle-like popularity but a slow, steady spread. By the end of the month, "Knitting an Afghan" was continuing to spread and find acceptance, and in fact during the next month it appeared on an additional 42 message boards. This "slow and steady" joke circulation was somewhat unexpected, given the way in which previous disaster humor had emerged, spread quickly, then disappeared from the scene. Perhaps this persistence of the risible moment indicates how deeply the event affected people, particularly Americans. More specifically, it signaled a growing dissatisfaction with official definitions of the crisis, particularly impatience with the extended security alerts and the way in which they targeted ordinary citizens as no better than associates of bin Laden. Increasingly, the popularity of such humor suggests, Americans wanted to return to a state of being where traveling grandmothers and lazy office workers could be seen as ordinary people, not as potential terrorists.

Table 4: Popularity of "Bin Workin" and "Knit an Afghan"

continue

Page Notes

59. Ocker: " a rough and uncultivated Australian male, often aggressively Australian in speech and manner." See "Australian Words." Available: http://www.anu.edu.au/ANDC/Austwords/ocker.html.

60. I have again italicized additions unique to this version.

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